Ohno undertook eight months of training for the IRONMAN World Championship, using chocolate milk as a recovery drink along the way, and generating considerable attention for the product in the process.

3

What we know about major media channels

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Warc Exclusive, February 2015

This article provides marketers with information and guidance on several major media channels. View Summary

This article provides marketers with information and guidance on several major media channels.

The channels include television, digital, print, radio, out of home and cinema are analysed.

Audience, effectiveness measurement and media strengths of each are detailed.

Whilst digital technology is driving sustained change, and it is vital for brands to have a digital media strategy, television maintains the largest share of consumers' media time.

Print has lost audience share but remains trusted by consumers, whilst out of home advertising has expanded to incorporate digital and mobile technology.

4

Media Planning Toolkit: Planning newsbrands

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Tony Regan, Warc Best Practice, February 2015, pp. 14-16

This article sets out some key considerations for planning for newsbrands and gives advice for marketers wanting to make the most of this changing media. View Summary

This article sets out some key considerations for planning for newsbrands and gives advice for marketers wanting to make the most of this changing media.

Newsbrands are enjoying a rising readership, as people access them across different devices - but this creates a planning challenge too, as advertisers need to consider these different touchpoints.

Newsbrands offer a great deal of flexibility across online and print versions, as ads can be bought as late as a day in advance, and can be sequenced across the paper or over days.

Assumptions of newsbrands are being challenged constantly, as audiences change, with most readers having a repertoire of newsbrands rather than loyalty to one, and newsbrands build partnerships with advertisers in new native formats.

Looking ahead is difficult in this rapidly changing media, but partnerships and collaboration are likely to continue, more data will become available as publishers grow their digital offering, and programmatic trading will grow in importance.

5

Bon Appétit finds a recipe for success with IBM's Watson

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Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Ad Age Data, October 2014

This event report addresses how Bon Appétit, the cooking magazine, has innovated in the digital space thanks to a tie-up with Watson, IBM’s cognitive computing platform. View Summary

This event report addresses how Bon Appétit, the cooking magazine, has innovated in the digital space thanks to a tie-up with Watson, IBM’s cognitive computing platform.

Although its physical publication has built up its brand equity over several decades, Bon Appétit wanted to make an impression beyond the printed page.

Through working with Watson, it created a test program where the computing system trawls Bon Appétit's archive of more than 9,000 recipes in response to users' search queries in order to present them with entirely new meal solutions.

As the magazine's recipes are all formatted in a similar fashion, this made them the equivalent of an extensive database that Watson could analyse to determine which flavour combinations may work best together.

The human touch still has an important role, as the reader must decide whether the proposed recipe requires a "tweak" to suit their personal tastes and preferences.

6

Understanding magazine audiences

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Andrew Green, Warc Best Practice, September 2014

This article summarises the best ways to use magazines as an advertising channel, including measurement and future developments. View Summary

This article summarises the best ways to use magazines as an advertising channel, including measurement and future developments.

Magazine adspend peaked in 2007 and has declined steadily since then - it is now forecast to account for 7.4% of major media adspend globally.

However, this remains an important channel as the market is highly segmented, allowing for targeting of specific interest groups.

Further strengths include high levels of audience engagement, potential for placement in highly relevant editorial environments and non-intrusive ads.

Publishers and advertisers need to prepare for the multi-platform future, as more people read digital versions of magazines.

This article explains a study that attempted to judge the quality of engagement with ads across different media channels. View Summary

This article explains a study that attempted to judge the quality of engagement with ads across different media channels. Three dimensions are used to measure media engagement: behaviour, relationship and experience, along with five KPIs. It was found that the media types that perform best have clear personalities and agendas, and specialise in a theme or have a specific target audience. Mass or popular titles were found to have lower engagement scores. It is argued that media categories (e.g. newspapers or radio) do not show significant variation in engagement: instead it is specific titles or brands which have more or less engagement.

This report, from the biennial Print & Digital Research Forum Symposium, summarises proceedings from a three-day event focused on the methods and challenges of measuring print and digital audiences in an era of multi- and cross-platform media consumption. View Summary

This report, from the biennial Print & Digital Research Forum Symposium, summarises proceedings from a three-day event focused on the methods and challenges of measuring print and digital audiences in an era of multi- and cross-platform media consumption. It covers multi-platform measurement and the key questions readership research must answer; equally, it discusses advertising effectiveness measures and ROI, going beyond numerical reach and exposures to assess qualitative dimensions such as engagement. Issues of frequency and the better measurement of online impressions are also addressed.

'Magonomics' analytics suggests that brands should reconsider magazines as a media choice and increase ad investment. The reader relationship has always been at the heart of the business argument for magazines as it crosses over into the reader's relationship with the magazine's advertising. However, there has been little empirical evidence of this claim, leaving unanswered questions about how this translates into return on investment and how the medium's performance compares with other media. To prove the real value of the reader relationship, the Professional Publishers Association engaged several metrics, designed to account for the unique way that consumers engage with magazines. The key finding demonstrated that magazines offer the highest ROI of any media channel.

10

Warc Media Trends Snapshot: The New Newsstand – How small publishers are cracking the digital monetisation issue

Publishers are diversifying away from the traditional free, ad-supported digital model in increasingly innovative ways – from crowd-funding to subscription-based apps. The tipping point in this trend could be Andrew Sullivan's decision to go independent and charge readers $20 a year for full access to his ad-free site, The Dish, rather than stay with a large, free-to-access, ad-supported online publisher. Apple, and its Newsstand app, stands to be the big winner from the trend. This Snapshot includes examples of brands ahead of the curve.

11

Meredith: Taking content marketing beyond magazines

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Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, BRITE, March 2013

In this article, Liz Schimel, chief digital officer for Meredith National Media Group, talks about the media group's content marketing strategy, which covers everything from providing media duties for Kraft to forming a tie-up with Walmart to promote its own Better Homes and Gardens magazines. View Summary

In this article, Liz Schimel, chief digital officer for Meredith National Media Group, talks about the media group's content marketing strategy, which covers everything from providing media duties for Kraft to forming a tie-up with Walmart to promote its own Better Homes and Gardens magazines. It is also making progress on the web and mobile, with platforms like Allrecipes.com providing an increasingly wide range of monetisation options.

This report from the 2012 Festival of Media Latin America covers a panel discussion on the future of the region’s print media, in which some speakers argued that print must change into a 'haute couture' product with more compelling content and imagery in order to survive. View Summary

This report from the 2012 Festival of Media Latin America covers a panel discussion on the future of the region’s print media, in which some speakers argued that print must change into a 'haute couture' product with more compelling content and imagery in order to survive. However, the speakers were generally upbeat about print’s future, arguing that it could and would exist alongside digital (citing the example of theatre coexisting with movies). A contributor from The Economist, however, described how the title was experiencing a boost in digital subscriptions, which it prices lower than its print edition to reflect its lower costs of production and distribution.

13

Adstats: Magazines ad spend

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Warc Data, April 2012, pp. 48-49

This Adstats article looks at ad spend in the magazine sector using a variety of data sources. These include magazine ad spend trends and forecasts by country, the top magazine markets around the worl... View Summary

This Adstats article looks at ad spend in the magazine sector using a variety of data sources. These include magazine ad spend trends and forecasts by country, the top magazine markets around the world and magazine media cost comparisons.

14

How people use tablets and the issue of specific issues: Insights from the 2011 Print and Digital Research Forum

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Manfred Mareck, Event Reports, Print and Digital Forum, October 2011

The 2011 Print and Digital Research Forum, held in San Francisco is a bi-annual event jointly sponsored by Ipsos MediaCT and Kantar Media. View Summary

The 2011 Print and Digital Research Forum, held in San Francisco is a bi-annual event jointly sponsored by Ipsos MediaCT and Kantar Media. Topics covered in this report include measurement of specific issues of publications, the measurement of print, online and mobile platforms, neuroscience and readership research, and issues concerning online sampling.

This report from the ARF's Re:Think conference covers the contribution of Scott McDonald, Condé Nast's SVP of research and insights. View Summary

This report from the ARF's Re:Think conference covers the contribution of Scott McDonald, Condé Nast's SVP of research and insights. He is speaking at a panel session entitled "50 Years of Advertising Research", staged to mirror the 50th anniversary issue of the Journal of Advertising on a similar theme. McDonald argues for a switch in the focus of research from the comparability of individual media to reflect the reality that all print media are now also consumed digitally. He also calls for a move away from language like "campaigns" and "targeting" to reflect a more collaborative approach to advertising, or risk consumers using technology to avoid ads completely. He highlights the importance of verifying research insights with corroborative evidence before acting upon them, and cites the social, behavioral and brain sciences as fruitful sources of learning for researchers.

16

Asia's digital publishers talk apps, not ads: Digital Matters 2011

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David Wolf, Event Reports, Digital Matters, June 2011

This report from the Digital Matters 2011 conference, Singapore, discusses how newspapers and magazines are looking to publish via apps to smartphones and tablets. View Summary

This report from the Digital Matters 2011 conference, Singapore, discusses how newspapers and magazines are looking to publish via apps to smartphones and tablets. For example, The Economist app for iPad has been downloaded 1.7 million times, three times the forecast, whilst Bloomberg BusinessWeek's app was downloaded 117,000 times in its first month. The challenge remains, however, to create engaging customer experiences that do more than just flatly interpret a publisher's "analogue" product. Of equal importance is attracting advertisers to these new digital platforms. Several publishers noted that financial brands were the leading adopters in this area.

17

Periodical Publishing (Global Industry Overview)

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Gale Global Industry Overviews, 2011

This paper provides an overview of the global periodical publishing industry. The paper gives a snapshot summary, with additional sections on the industry's development, organisation and structure, current conditions and its leading companies and countries. View Summary

This paper provides an overview of the global periodical publishing industry. The paper gives a snapshot summary, with additional sections on the industry's development, organisation and structure, current conditions and its leading companies and countries. It contains a list of further information sources and reading.

18

Warc Briefing: Magazines

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Warc Exclusive, November 2010

This briefing offers an overview of the history, theories and key trends related to Magazines.

This briefing offers an overview of the history, theories and key trends related to Magazines.

19

Wired Editor: iPad Most Measurable Advertising Medium

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Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, 4A's Transformation, April 2010

At the 4A's Transformation 2010 conference, Chris Anderson, editor at Wired, presented their approach to creating an iPad offering of their magazine. View Summary

At the 4A's Transformation 2010 conference, Chris Anderson, editor at Wired, presented their approach to creating an iPad offering of their magazine. The challenge of producing a tablet version was not a content one but a business model one. It is intended to utilise the funcionality of the technology, such as the ability to rotate images 360 degrees, more than traditional, adapted-from-print publications. Anderson views the tablet format as also providing the most measurable advertising ever, as metrics are developed to assess how users interact with the product.

Geoffrey Precourt, Warc's U.S. editor, reports from the 4A's annual Leadership Conference, Transformation 2010. This article covers the session, "A Message from Magazine Industry Leaders", with speakers Cathleen Black (president, Hearst Corporation); Jack Griffin, president, National Media Group, Meredith Corporation; and Ann Moore (chairman and ceo, Time Inc.). They argue that magazine readership is higher than ever and look to correct some myths of the effect of digital on the state of print magazines. A campaign has been launched to make advertisers aware of the power of magazines, supported by organisations such as Condé Nast and Time Warner, as well as individual titles like National Geographic.

22

From media research to people research? UK audience measurement in 2010

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James Aitchison, Event Reports, MRG Annual, December 2009

At the Media Research Group's 2009 annual conference, a series of 'industry update' sessions from various UK audience research bodies outlined their respective priorities, challenges and innovations for 2010. View Summary

At the Media Research Group's 2009 annual conference, a series of 'industry update' sessions from various UK audience research bodies outlined their respective priorities, challenges and innovations for 2010. This article summarises those sessions, given by BARB (TV), which is launching a new panel; RAJAR (radio), which is experimenting with online diaries; UKOM (online), which is launching an online planning currency; Postar (outdoor), which is introducing a GPS-driven travel survey; the NRS (print), which is looking to extent readership measurement to non-print sources; and the IPA's Touchpoints survey, which is now considering how to measure word of mouth.

Senior figures from "traditional" media (including magazines, newspapers, radio, out-of-home and sponsorship) express their thoughts about the realities of operating in an increasingly digital world in this report from Geoffrey Precourt at the Advertising Research Foundation's Audience Measurement 4.0 conference in New York. View Summary

This article discusses magazine readership research. Average issue readership (AIR) remains the preferred currency on which magazines are bought, in spite of much criticism over the past 30 years. View Summary

This article discusses magazine readership research. Average issue readership (AIR) remains the preferred currency on which magazines are bought, in spite of much criticism over the past 30 years. However, during the last few years both in the U.S. and UK, issue-specific readership has been measured, using separate weekly online surveys. These have provided evidence of the extent to which readership if issues may vary, according to their content and other factors. Some evidence of lower readership estimates makes it less popular with publishers, but in the long term it should strengthen print media by delivering a harder currency to sell with.

25

Publishers Google a new business model

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Geoffrey Precourt, Warc Exclusive, October 2008

In this article, WARC Online's U.S. Editor, Geoffrey Precourt, discusses the 'Google perspective' on the challenges and opportunities facing magazine publishers, as part of his coverage of the 2008 American Magazine Conference. View Summary

In this article, WARC Online's U.S. Editor, Geoffrey Precourt, discusses the 'Google perspective' on the challenges and opportunities facing magazine publishers, as part of his coverage of the 2008 American Magazine Conference. Online offers a variety of opportunities to publishers, from providing specialist content to niche audiences to aggregating information for mass consumption, all in a way which is much more measurable than in print. Magazines, however, currently have the advantage of providing more respected, high-quality content than the vast majority of web portals. In this regard, magazines are often held in higher regard even than newspapers. As such, Google ceo Eric Schmidt argues that websites are effectively co-dependent on more traditional publishers for the sort of cutting-edge, accurate content that readers desire, whether online or offline. Magazines that innovate (and which are also willing to make mistakes) will be the ones that prosper online, and which ultimately offer both web users and advertisers the value they are looking for.